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Bread & Pastries/different flours

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Expert: Elyse Grau - 10/6/2009


Question
Elyse:  What is the difference in flours? I usually just use all purpose, but what is the difference in that and self-rising?  I bake a lot of cookies and pastries at Christmas, so will using different kinds improve the quality and taste?I seldom use cake flour, because I'm not a cake eater.Usually receipes just call for flour. Any info you can tell me will be appreciated.

Answer
Darlene:
When a recipe calls for just "flour", it means all-purpose. Self-rising has baking powder in it, so you can't really substitute directly, you would have to adjust your leavening. Cake flour is a softer wheat, and usually very finely milled. I rarely use it either. In recipes calling for it, you can substitute all-purpose, reducing the amount by 2 tablespoons/cup of cake flour.

Elyse

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Elyse Grau

Expertise

I can answer any questions about baking. The only thing I'm not too good at is baking pies, nor do I know much about high altitude baking.

Experience

I have been baking for over 30 years. One of my hobbies is creating recipes, most of those for baked goods. I made my own wedding cake. Currently I prefer to bake healthier things. I use a lot of whole wheat and other whole grain flours, and prefer to use less sugar or sugar substitutes in my baking. I do a lot with fruit.

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Hobby Farms Home Gardening How-to BackHome Creswell Chronicle

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